J-ed Talks

What are the implications of Jewish education's obsession with programmes? Why do we have a proclivity to deploy programmes? In this episode, which is based on personal experience rather than objective findings, I explore this issue and the potential for a different approach. The key theoretical claim I make is to view programmes as a positioning act rather than a well-grounded educational decision. The position taken depends on the context but has some general characteristics, for example, that the position dichotomizes and paints the Other with one brush. It is therefore difficult to question the educational power of an established programme because to do so involves opposition to the taken position. You want to ask questions about the educational value, but the programme represents, by its very nature, a position taken (often implicitly ideological) that resists any attempt at questioning.  For those interested, I borrowed the concept of "position-taking"  from Rob Moore and Johan Muller in 'Voice Discours